Braulio Otavalo

organization overview

In pursuit of fair, productive, and sustainable communities, OA7 is laying the foundation for a future where everyone has the right and the means to legally claim and benefit from their land and homes. Technology and innovation are the pillars of social and economic empowerment and instrumental in overcoming the traditional challenges of accuracy in surface measurement. By using cutting-edge geospatial technologies, such as RTK (precision GPS) and drones, OA7 creates accurate land surveys. OA7 increases access to the property legalization process for Ecuadorian Indigenous people living in rural and marginal neighborhoods.

Personal Bio

Braulio Otavalo is co-founder and president of OA7. He grew up in San Pablo Urco, a rural community in the Ecuadorian Andes belonging to the Kayambi Indigenous people.

Braulio is part of a large family, and is one of seven children. As farmers, his parents experienced poverty, racism, water scarcity, and lack of land titles for their farmland, as well as the house where his family grew up.

Braulio has a degree in electronics from the National Polytechnic School in Ecuador. In 2019, he won a Chevening Scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in artificial intelligence at the University of Southampton in England. Braulio was a 2022 recipient of the Young Leaders of America Initiative Fellowship, during which he studied the application of drones for urban development at the The Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska.